This invention relates generally to catheters with injection ports, such as peripherally inserted central catheters, and more particularly to devices for securing access to them for outpatient safety.
Abusers of intravenous drugs such as heroin are susceptible to severe infections which must be treated by intravenous injection of antibiotics over a course of many weeks. To facilitate this treatment, the drug abuser may be provided with an intravenous peripherally inserted central catheter or PICC line. This catheter, while usually inserted in the hospital, can remain in place for weeks or months, and makes it a simple matter to rapidly inject the necessary antibiotics without difficulty in finding a vein. This ease of intravenous access, however, can be a serious hazard for outpatients who are habitual drug abusers, who can take advantage of this catheter to self-administer unprescribed quantities of narcotics or other controlled substances. Providing a drug abuser with an unsupervised PICC line for outpatient care can lead to illegal drug overdose and death. To protect these high risk patients, who might otherwise not need full-time nursing care, they must be hospitalized and retained under supervision for the multiple weeks that the antibiotics are needed. Hospitalization is vastly more costly than outpatient care, and represents a less than optimal utilization of health care resources.
What is needed is an arrangement which allows drug abusing patients to be safely outfitted with PICC lines for outpatient care.